March 9. 2005 Page A2 Selma March 40 Years Later purchased with the precious (A P) - Rep. John Lew is re­ blood o f m any,” said King, turned to the Edm und Pettus w ho c ro ssed the Edm und Bridge, 40 years after he braved Pettus Bridge in a car. billy clubs and tear gas in one Pol ice estimated the crowd o f the grim m est, goriest spec­ at nearly 10,000. tacles o f the civil rights m ove­ Certain provisions o f the ment. Voting Rights Act, such as O thers on hand Sunday to the use o f federal exam iners co m m e m o ra te the m arches and a requirem ent for Justice across the bridge included the D epartment approval o f elec­ Rev. Jesse Jackson, Senate tion law changes, will be up M ajority Leader Bill Frist, and for renew al by Congress in L ynda Johnson Robb, whose 2007. f a th e r . P r e s id e n t L y n d o n The Rev. Joseph Lowery, Johnson, signed the Voting longtim e head o f the South­ Rights Act into law later in ern C h ristia n L e a d e rsh ip 1965. Conference, urged the nearly “President Johnson signed Georgia Congressman John Lewis (center), walks arm in arm with other members three dozen House and Sen­ that act, but it was w ritten by o f Congress, in Selma, Ala., on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the 40th ate m em bers w ho p a rtic i­ the people o f Selm a,” said anniversary o f the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march. (AP photo) pated to renew those por­ Lewis, who was clubbed on tions o f the law. the head during the "Bloody “T heir presence here is a m ock­ M artin Luther King Jr., led a second Sunday” attack on m archers by state bridge. Participants also included singer m arch tw o w eeks later to the state ery unless they go home and do the troopers and sheriff’s deputies on right thing,” said Lowery, who also March 7, 1965. He was am ong 17 Harry Belafonte, who was at the dem ­ Capitol. joined King on the m arch to the “The freedom we won here in Selma onstration 40 years ago, and C oretta blacks hospitalized as that m arch Capitol. and on the road to M ontgom ery was Scott King, whose husband, the Rev. was turned back w hile crossing the Gang Member Charged in Rapper Shooting A man police say is a documented Crips gang member has been arrested for attempted murder in the shooting of a local rap musician. The victim, Ladarius Davis, who goes by the stage name Korbell, survived 12 gunshots wounds during the Feb. 27 shoot­ ing on North Interstate Avenue and Skidmore Street. Alan Jerome Bates, 23, faces charges of attempted murder, assault, being a felon in possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm. Police say he was arrested March 2 during search warrants in the 15900 block of East Burnside Street. A high-capacity gun and seven grams of crack cocaine were seized during the arrest. Police said Bates apparently got into a dispute with Davis before the shooting. Investigators said there was no evidence that Davis was involved in gang activity. A man and woman were also arrested in connection with the case. Michael Dee Collins, 31, was charged with drug and firearm offenses; and Monique Roshell Crane, 22, was charged with hindering prosecution. Alan Bates and the gun police seized in the shooting o f a local rap musician. Army Behind in Recruiting Many blacks site a war they don’t believe in (AP) — Young blacks have grown markedly less willing to join the Army, citing fear of being sent to fight a w ar in Iraq they don’t believe in, according to unpublicized studies for the military that suggest the Army is entering a prolonged recruiting slump. Fear of combat also is a leading reason fewer young women are choosing the Army, the studies say. Al­ though female soldiers are barred by law from assign­ ments in direct land combat, they nonetheless have found themselves under attack by insurgents in Iraq, and 33 have died. “More African Americans identify having to fight for a cause they don’t support as a barrier to military ser­ vice,” concluded an August 2004 study for the Army. It also said attitudes toward the Army among all groups of American youth have grown more negative in recent years. “In the past, barriers were about inconvenience or preference for another life choice,” the study said. “Now they have switched to something quite different: fear of death or injury.” Statistically, the fear factor is about twice as strong among potential recruits as a whole as it was in 2000, the study said. That and other studies, all o f which are posted on an obscure Defense Department Web site, cited the Iraq war as a major turnoff for many. The Army has suffered more of the 1,500-plus U.S. deaths in Iraq than any other service, and thousands have been wounded. Some soldiers will serve their sec­ ond tour in Iraq this year. W hile Army leaders say soldiers have shown a strong interest in re-enlisting, the strains of war seem to have become a barrier to first-time enlistees. The Army ’ s recruiting challenge is critically important not only to the long-term commitment in Iraq but also to the A rm y's goal of expanding by 30,000 soldiers. Through the first five months o f the budget year which began last Oct. 1, the active Army is about 6 percent behind sched­ ule to meet its 2005 recruiting goal. The Army isn’t the only service having trouble finding recruits. The M arine Corps fell slightly short of its recruiting goal in January - the first month that had happened in nearly a decade - amid parents’ concerns about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Deadly AIDS Impact Grows I (AP) - More than 80 million Afri­ cans may die from AIDS by 2025, the United Nations said in a report released Friday, and infections could soar to 90 million - or more than 10 percent of the continent’s population - if more isn’t done soon to fight the disease. More than 25 million African have been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. UNAIDS estimated that nearly $200billion is needed to save 16 million people from death and 43 million people from becoming infected, but do­ nors have pledged nowhere near that amount. In its report, “AIDS in A frica,” the U.N. agency exam ines three potential scenarios for the conti­ nent in the next 20 years depend­ in g on th e in te r n a tio n a l com m unity’s response. R esearchers determ ined that even with m assive funding and better treatm ent, the num ber of A fricans who will die from AIDS is likely to top 67 m illion in the next tw o decades. They all warn that the w orst of the epidem ic’s im pact is still to come. T ro o p D eath s Top 1,500 (AP)— The numberofU.S. troops killed in Iraq has topped 1,500, an Associated Press count showed Thursday after the military an­ nounced the deaths of three Ameri­ cans. The military said twoU.S. troops died of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb in Baghdad struck their vehicle. Another soldier was killed in Babil province, part of an area known as the “Triangle of Death” because o f the frequency of insurgent attacks on U.S. and Our Home Equity Line of Credit is loaded with pluses. 4.00% + + + + + No closing costs Easy application & less paperwork Borrow up to 125% of home’s value Payments as low as interest only Fixed-rate loan option Tliink Smart. tr,!P ^Jnrtlanb CDbeeruer Established 1970 USPS 959-680 ________________________________ 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 E dito r - in -C h ie f , P ublisher : Charles H. 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